Despite having a ranking too low to enter at the time of an entry deadline, Naomi Osaka will play in the 2022 Madrid Open as she received a wild card for the WTA 1000 event.
Just one month ago, Naomi Osaka was ranked 77th in the WTA Rankings after not performing well recently and missing some of the tournaments last year.
However, the former world number 1 reached the final of the 2022 Miami Open and therefore jumped to the 35th place in the WTA Rankings. But the 2022 Madrid Open list entry deadline was before her jump in the rankings, so she couldn't enter the event directly.
Thanks to her great results in the past and how important she is for women's tennis, Naomi Osaka was given a wild card and, therefore, will take part in the event.
Already when she was speaking after her loss at the 2022 Miami Open, the Japanese player hinted that she may participate during the clay-court part of the season, analyzing her clay-court qualities.
"I'm clearly not a clay expert, but I feel like if I get my movement together, I should be pretty good. I grew up on green clay, being from here, so it shouldn't be that foreign to me."
"And I know Madrid, Sabalenka won that last year, so I think that there are opportunities for me to do well. I think I just have to get my mentality together to know that every match would be a fight."
For Osaka, the Madrid Open will present a chance to prove that she can be a challenging opponent also on the clay courts and not only the hard courts, on which she had so much success in her tennis career.
Madrid in particular could serve as a great place for her to prove that, as the high altitude of the city benefits good servers.